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OTT Streamers Deliver The Yuletide Shmeer

Just eight days until Christmas and the streaming TV market continues to heat up with enough channels, offers and capabilities to make a cable TV executive cry.

Among the newsmakers so far this week have been HBO and Amazon, revealing that the popular HBO Go over-the-top streaming app is now available on the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, giving Prime subscribers access to the popular vault of HBO movies and original-content TV programs. It also prepares Fire TV users for the chance to eventually take advantage of the changing HBO Go business model, which will open up per-program purchases to VOD customers, instead of just subscribers who already pay for HBO on a cable or satellite service.

Meanwhile, re/code reports that Roku and Comcast have also cut a deal to open up HBO Go to Comcast subscribers who use Roku media players.

Then, Walmart revealed an offer for today (Tuesday, Dec. 16) giving a customer who makes a purchase on Walmart.com $4.99 in credits to Walmart’s digital movie service Vudu.

Customers can use the credit toward the purchase or rental of movies and TV shows available on Vudu, including new releases such as “The Maze Runner.”

Vudu can be accessed on almost every connected device, including smart TVs, tablets, computers, DVD/Blu-ray players, Rokus, gaming consoles and more.

Last month, Vudu signed onto Disney’s digital movie service Disney Movies Anywhere, enabling Disney, Pixar and Marvel movie purchases on Vudu, such as “Frozen” and “Guardians of the Galaxy,” to be integrated into the Disney service.

Not to be left out, Roku announced a new Roku-produced Roku Recommends channel, which each week will bring host Ellen Fox in to look at the latest streaming channels, movies, TV shows, games, Roku tips and other features of the popular streaming service platform.

Fox has previously appeared on “The Rotten Tomatoes Show,” “Wizard Wars” on SyFy, and “Eye Opener TV,” among other things.